The Pasadena Unified teachers union and the district have reached an impasse in long-running contract negotiations and will bring in a mediator in an attempt to come to an agreement.

Pasadena Unified’s money troubles have hampered the collective bargaining process. Superintendent Brian McDonald said though the two sides have come a long way, they still can’t settle all their differences.

The district and the union, United Teachers of Pasadena, have agreed “in principle” on a 2%, one-time bonus for teachers this school year, a 3% salary increase next year and increases to dental benefits, McDonald wrote in a memo to staff last week.

But PUSD cannot meet the union’s demand for 3% salary increases in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, he wrote.

It’s a “proposal that our district cannot sustain at this time without making devastating cuts and putting us in fiscal jeopardy,” McDonald wrote. The district proposed settling on the agreed upon terms and coming back to the bargaining table in October to negotiate future salary increases.

The two sides agreed to declare an impasse and will call in a professional mediator to hopefully iron things out, he said.

Union president Alvin Nash did not return a request for comment Monday afternoon.

The negotiations come during a tough time for PUSD. United Teachers of Pasadena in September took a vote of no confidence in McDonald amid tough collective bargaining, and union members previously spoke out against an extension of McDonald’s contract that was approved by the school board in January.

Meanwhile, the board in December approved $10.1 million in cuts at the order of Los Angeles County education officials, who were concerned the about the district’s fiscal solvency.

The county Office of Education OKed the cuts in January and said PUSD’s situation is improving but warned it’s not out of the woods. Looming on the horizon are the costs of declining enrollment, rising special education expenses and the lure of deficit spending.

As it stands, the proposal the district floated to the union would have required $6 million in cuts, a plan that would have required another review and approval by the Office of Education, according to McDonald. Any concessions the teachers would have clinched on top of that would have required even deeper cuts.

Chris Lindahl covers Pasadena, El Monte and Pico Rivera for the Southern California News Group. He previously wrote for the Cape Cod Times and Daily Hampshire Gazette in his home state of Massachusetts, where his coverage included higher education, marijuana policy and LGBTQ issues. He's reveling in the novelty of being able to hit the ski slopes and the beach in the same day, however impractical that might be.

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